Pen Pals Meet After 80 Years Of Correspondence

They've been communicating through pen and paper from thousands of miles away for more than eight decades, and Friday the pen pals met face to face for the first time.

Relatives say if you saw the women together, it was hard to believe that was their first time to ever see each other. They've lived through so much together for decades through their letters with all that distance between them. And all started with a comic book in 1932.

Eighty years ago, a lifelong friendship began with the stroke of a pen. Eleven-year-old Sadie lived in Connecticut and saw a feature in her brother's comic book with a list of kids looking for pen pals.

That led her to Lorraine Thomas, who lived in Hawaii, thousands of miles away. They've been writing each other now for 80 years.

"I do remember her always saying, ‘My pen pal. My pen pal. Oh I got a picture of my pen pal,'" said Christine Fanali.

Christine Fanali is Sadie's daughter. Growing up, she remembers her mom talking about her friend Lori.

"You can write a lot more than you can say sometimes. So I don't know, I just think they have this really special thing," said Christine.

Sadie was granted a wish from a non-profit for seniors. Her wish was to fly to Oklahoma City to meet Lori. And on Friday, she finally did before, health issues and tight budgets kept them from this trip.

But both women say it's all been well worth the wait.

With cell phones and social media now, it's hard to imagine when they first began writing it could take weeks before they received each other's letters. Sadie will go back to California in a few days and of course, they plan to keep writing.